BCC Overview in Resolve

Overview

This document provides additional guidance for working with BCC in DaVinci Resolve.

Supported Effects:

BCC supports DaVinci Resolve through the OFX plugin API. Due to certain limitations in the current DaVinci Resolve implementation of that plugin API, not all BCC filters will appear as options within the Resolve UI.

As of the initial release of Resolve 11 it is not currently possible for an OFX plugin to access the source layer at points in time that are more than roughly 5 frames from the current frame. Many BCC plugins access neighboring frames and may use restricted frame ranges when running in Resolve. Other BCC plugins such as Optical Stabilizer or Optical Flow fundamentally require access to frames at very widely spaced points in time and thus are not currently supported in Resolve. For similar reasons the familiar BCC Motion Tracker cannot be used for new motion tracking analysis runs in Resolve, however, it is still possible to import tracker data calculated in other environments such as Mocha or BCC tracker exports from other hosts.

Working with Alpha:

Working with alpha channels in Resolve requires specific workflow techniques. Please consult Resolve documentation for complete guidance but to quickly get up and running with BCC effects that create alpha channels in Resolve you can do the following. Right click on the effect node and select Use OFX Alpha and then connect the alpha channel of the node to the final alpha. Then select “Use Alpha Output” to tell Resolve to respect the alpha channel when compositing over background layers.

Working with Secondary Layers:

As of Resolve 11.1 it is now possible for an effect to access secondary layers – for example Chroma Key Studio can now perform a Light Wrap by piping in the background layer for a more realistic final composite. Here’s a quick suggested workflow for accessing secondary layers in Resolve:

1. In the media tab’s file browser, select the clip to be used as a secondary layer, right click, and select ‘Add as Matte’
2. In the color tab, apply the desired BCC filter to your primary media’s node
3. Right click the node, and select ‘Add OFX Input’
4. Right click the node again, go to ‘Add Matte,’ and select the name of the clip you previously imported as a matte
5. Select the Key Input (the dotted line between the blue triangle on each node) and delete it
6. Select the Source Bar (gray rectangle on the left of the node window) and connect it to the RGB Input (top grey circle) of your primary node
7. Select the RGB Output (bottom grey circle) of the matte node, and connect it by dragging to the OFX input (middle grey circle) of your primary node. The secondary layer option should now be working.